Posts Tagged AZ

i was in flagstaff, AZ shooting some of those purina ads you see a few entries ago when one of the local crew told me there was something cool happening in the sky and that i should shoot it. he mentioned some a circle of light and talked about arcs, the shape of ice crystals in the atmosphere, angles and light, and a whole bunch of other confusing things that i was nodding my head while listening to but was completely lost. i threw a 16-35mm lens on my camera at 16mm and quickly shot a panorama of the sky. it kind of got lost in the mix for a while, but i came across the photos, stitched them together, and emailed it to the flagstaff local who clued me in. he asked me to send it to a website called Atmospheric Optics, and they asked if they could use it in a “picture of the day.”

if you spend a few minutes cruising through the Atmospheric Optics website there are some incredible pictures of skyward phenomenon. makes me want to learn more about arcs, the shape of ice crystals in the atmosphere, and angles of light.

if you’ve never been to the desert before, i have three words for you: PRICKLY – PEAR – CACTUS. it was pretty obvious that neither me or my assistant had ever spent much time in desert-like conditions because within 30 seconds of getting to our location, we were covered with cactus needles. big ones, small ones, heat-seeking ones… holy moly. the first one to REALLY get me was mr. prickly pear himself. i felt a nice jab in my ankle and i looked down to see a happy little ball of death spikes hanging from my leg. when i tried to pull it out, i got stabbed about 27 times in my fingers. i walked around to find a pair of gloves and it just dangled from my ankle like some gothic christmas tree ornament. when i got the gloves i tried to pull it slowly, but it just pulled my skin with it (like if you pinch your skin with your fingers and pull it). so i snatched it out real quick-like, and the cute mace-like ball was replaced with a dull burning sensation pretty much all day. that was the first round in a long, heated fight with the desert landscape. later i was shooting and my assistant yelled “yowwwwwwww!!” i looked over at him and he said with big eyes, “man, i just bent down and sat on a cactus.”